


Long is the road

by WindsOfTime



Series: Two of a kind [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: American spelling, Demisexual Sephiroth, Developing Relationship, Fade to Black, Fluff and Angst, M/M, More mentions of sex than my usual, POV Outsider, POV Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychic Bond, Time Travel Fix-It, as opposed to the first story which used British, but still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 08:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26968816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindsOfTime/pseuds/WindsOfTime
Summary: Forging a relationship with someone isn't easy when you're the trigger to their worst nightmares.Or: 4 times Cloud flinched and one time Sephiroth did.
Relationships: Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Series: Two of a kind [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934641
Comments: 36
Kudos: 295





	Long is the road

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a long time coming, but there it is: a fluffy sequel to _Two of a Kind_ , just in time for the 3-year anniversary of the fic's ending. Thanks to katiekaboom713 and kannachan27 on Tumblr for kicking my ass into gear. <3
> 
> Reminder: Sephiroth calls eldest!Cloud "Cloud" and youngest!Cloud "Strife", but everyone else calls eldest!Cloud "Rain".

For most of his life, Sephiroth had lived in a city perpetually choked by smog, in a tower that shunned windows for harsh artificial lights. He had never questioned it. Shinra HQ had been a definite step up from the labs of his childhood.

But after months on the run, sleeping under the stars, his spacious apartment had seemed like a distant nightmare.

Luckily, Reeve Tuesti’s WRO had established itself in Junon. As soon as Sephiroth had joined, he had secured for himself a home in one of the upper levels of the city. Genesis, when he had visited, had expressed disappointment that he would live somewhere so small. But Sephiroth would never again think of space as luxury.

Luxury was getting to leave his work place at the end of a long day. Luxury was owning his own car, and knowing that there wasn’t an entire department of his company keeping track of his movements. It was parking in front of a tasteful bookshop, sometimes stopping by to see what interesting material they had recently received; then unlocking the open staircase next to the shop and climbing up to a sun-drenched balcony overlooking the city and the glittering sea.

And sometimes, luxury was finding someone there.

Sephiroth stopped on the last steps. His catlike pupils, which had started to shrink in the light, rounded again. He drank in the sight of the wiry blond man leaning over the railing, from his scuffed combat boots to the warm tan of his bare arms.

“Cloud,” he said, and he couldn’t find it in himself to regret the way his voice went rough with pleasure.

His approach had been heard, of course, but there was something nearly shy in the way blue eyes glanced at him over one shoulder.

“Hiya, Sephiroth.”

Sephiroth smiled as he came closer. Cloud’s eyelids fluttered. Maybe reassured by his body language, he finally turned to him.

“Sorry to drop by without warning.”

“You never have to apologize for granting me the joy of your company, Cloud.”

He dared to cup the man’s face in his ungloved palms. There was the slightest drag of stubble against his skin, evidence that Cloud hadn’t bothered shaving today. His facial hair grew slow and sparse.

“Is something amiss?” Sephiroth said.

Cloud shook his head no. His eyes first avoided Sephiroth’s, then he gathered himself and met them squarely.

“Just… wanted to see you.”

There was a challenge in the set of his jaw. There always was, every time they were apart for longer than a day. Sephiroth knew it intimately too, this feeling that this was too good to be true, that he would turn around and this precious, delicate thing between them would have somehow shattered while he wasn’t looking. And so, with every reunion, they danced this careful dance of relearning their place with each other.

Sephiroth kissed him. The tension in Cloud’s shoulders melted. He stepped closer. His hands slipped under Sephiroth’s coat and found his hips. Their lips pressed, tugged, slid together. Separated. Met again. Sephiroth’s fingers carded through soft windswept hair. Cloud was indecently warm, his frame solid and strong in his arms. He wanted to curl around him, claim him for all eternity and never let go.

They drew back, just far enough that they could breathe each other’s skin.

“Come in,” Sephiroth whispered against Cloud’s lips.

He managed to wrench himself away to unlock his apartment’s front door.

Cloud looked around curiously as he stepped in. He had only been here once, and their relationship had been young enough back then that he had been skittish and had left quickly. It gave Sephiroth a thrill to see him here, finally, calm and sure of his welcome.

The flat was clean and airy, with sparse but comfortable furniture. The walls had been painted a light blue when he had bought it, and though he had found it jarring at first and had thought to paint them over, he had become used to the stark difference they posed to Shinra’s impersonal and ubiquitous whites and grays. On sunny days like this one, the large windows turned the whole place into an extension of the sea.

Some picture frames adorned the wall. A few showed Genesis and Angeal’s smiling faces; the rest were landscape paintings. It was a taste he had acquired back in Wutai. In the living room, the bookshelf groaned under the weight of its contents, although he had only been here six months; the bookshop downstairs was a terrible enticement. A display case held a few Materia. Sephiroth set Masamune down on its prized place above it.

“How did you get past the door to the staircase?” he said.

Cloud had wandered over to a painting of the North Crater. He looked incredulous at finding it here. Sephiroth didn’t bother to ask which memories of a future long gone it brought up. Rather than risk tripping over one of Cloud’s many tragedies, he preferred to feed his unending thirst on whatever the man chose to share on his own.

“Jumped over it.”

Sephiroth snorted. Thankfully, his neighbors weren’t the curious type.

“I’ll have a key made for you.”

That got Cloud’s attention.

“Oh…”

He looked for a moment on the verge of refusing. Then there was a willful flash in his eyes.

“Alright. Thanks.”

Always having to remind himself that he could have this, that this was what they were to each other. Sephiroth could see him fight his fears to cling to this. Each time Cloud came to him, he was defying fate to deny him a safe harbor long deserved. It made the possessiveness in Sephiroth flare. The urge to protect this wounded heart was so strong sometimes, he could taste it like blood on his tongue. If he listened to himself, he would smother him in his embrace. Yet he knew that the best gift he could grant Cloud was the exact opposite of this.

Freedom. Choice.

This was what he needed, and what Sephiroth could never refuse him.

So instead of going to him, he shed his coat and sat on the couch. He watched Cloud pace the room, acquainting himself with the place like a wary cat to a new territory.

“Have you been to see your brother?”

“Not yet.”

Sephiroth blinked.

“Does he know you’re back in town?”

Cloud glanced at him with something like guilt.

“Not yet,” he repeated.

This was a surprise.

Cloud’s wanderlust often had him leave Junon. He kept in close contact with the younger Strife, Sephiroth knew, even if it mostly meant laconic checkup messages. Sometimes, when the frustration of having him so far away ate at Sephiroth, he became irrational enough to feel jealousy over this. It was silly. Cloud always answered when Sephiroth called, even though Sephiroth knew he disliked phone conversations.

Still, the last few times he had come back to town, he had sent word first. There had been arrangements made, gatherings, evenings out with friends. He and Cloud had of course found quiet moments together, but it had never been this: Cloud dropping by, unannounced, imposing on his time and stepping into his space like he believed he had a right to it.

His face must have expressed all the pleasure he felt at the thought, because Cloud turned away and rubbed at his neck, embarrassed.

“How have things been here?” he asked.

“Reasonably busy. Staff movements are starting to calm down. I think the last SOLDIERs who wished to return to civilian life are gone, and the recruitment rush from the establishment of the WRO is slowing. It will get easier to build stable troops.”

Cloud smirked faintly.

“You going to be the newbies’ drill sergeant?”

“Training falls under Zack’s purview.”

“Ha! Just as well. You’d terrify them.”

Sephiroth frowned, offended, even though he had shunted the responsibility on his second-in-command at the first opportunity.

“I am not some kind of ogre.”

Cloud smiled, the way he was prone to when Sephiroth amused him.

“You’re larger than life, Sephiroth. Nobody is ever going to meet you for the first time and not feel at least slightly terrified.”

Genesis had often expressed a similar sentiment, not without envy. Sephiroth had always been indifferent to the matter, if not vaguely satisfied. He had no great wish to be approachable. But for some reason, now that the observation came from Cloud, he found himself annoyed.

Cloud’s smile widened enough to show a hint of teeth.

“Are you sulking?”

“I’m most certainly not,” Sephiroth said, aghast at the suggestion that he, a grown man, would do something so immature.

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

Sephiroth huffed and stood up. Just because he liked seeing Cloud in a teasing mood didn’t mean his pride appreciated being the butt of the joke.

“Are you hungry?”

“I could eat.”

Cloud followed him to the doorway to the kitchen. He watched intently as Sephiroth slipped an apron over the black shirt and beige pants of his WRO uniform.

“You’re going to cook?” Cloud said, and his voice betrayed how jarring he found the concept.

Sephiroth gathered his hair in a ponytail, gratified by the way Cloud drank in the movement.

“I’m not chef material, but I do know how to cook. Did you think I survived on takeout? It’s very unhealthy.”

“Unhealthy,” Cloud whispered to himself in incredulity. “Right.”

He shook his head and sat at the table to watch. Sephiroth hid a smirk. Cloud found fascination in the most mundane of Sephiroth’s acts, and he derived a strange kind of pleasure from it. Over the years, he had only ever lowered the walls of his facade as Shinra’s strongest SOLDIER for Angeal and Genesis, but now he found himself acting in increasingly domestic ways just to keep Cloud’s eyes on him.

They chatted as he cooked dinner, and then as they ate. Cloud shared tidbits of his travels. He talked half-heartedly about wanting to start some kind of delivery service, but Sephiroth got the impression that he was mostly reacquainting himself with the present-day world. He was certainly quick to shoot down Sephiroth’s suggestion that he use his contacts in the WRO to make the creation of the business easier.

Sephiroth himself, however, wasn’t shy about sharing information that should have been confidential to the organization, such as the potentially dangerous groups they were keeping an eye on or AVALANCHE’s latest-known moves. To his amusement, Cloud didn’t seem to pick up on his breach of protocol. Why would he? He was used to being kept abreast of things like this. The Planet’s guardian trying to masquerade as an average man. Cloud was a walking contradiction.

“Midgar’s Plate is still there,” Cloud said, later, as he used Sephiroth’s TV to catch up with the news.

He sounded disgruntled, like he had found one area of this present that he hadn’t worked hard enough to change for the best. It gave Sephiroth pause.

“I… Yes? How would anyone possibly go about dismantling it?”

It had been a genuine question, but Cloud only huffed in discontent. Sephiroth smiled, bemused. He crossed the room to the couch and sat close, close enough that their thighs pressed together.

He half-expected Cloud to ignore him in favor of the TV. Certainly, it wouldn’t be the first time that the man missed or misinterpreted his signals. But Cloud’s eyes flashed. He shifted, side-eyeing him in anticipation.

Sephiroth breathed easier. Cloud had become more in tune with him since those brief seconds they had spent in each other’s mind. Sephiroth would never have chosen to broadcast his feelings in such a boorish way if he had had a choice, but he couldn’t deny that it had carried his intentions more effectively than any words would have.

He leaned down. Cloud turned to meet him halfway. He abandoned the remote to loop his arms around Sephiroth’s neck, pressing closer.

He lost count of how much time they spent like this, hands and lips caressing as the TV droned mindlessly in the background. Cloud made a delightful sound as Sephiroth bit and sucked at the skin of his neck. In retaliation, his fingers freed Sephiroth’s hair of its tie and gave a sharp tug. Sephiroth, who was not in the habit of letting anyone touch his hair, drew a harsh breath as pleasure bolted through his body. He pushed forward, crushing Cloud against the couch’s corner as he sought his lips again.

Cloud turned rigid. His hands flew to Sephiroth’s chest and pushed. They were shaking.

Sephiroth blinked his eyes open. Cloud met them for only a second before he turned pale and looked away. Sephiroth flinched back as if struck.

He retreated to the other side of the couch. Dismay fell like an icy stone in his stomach, cooling any trace of the heat that had a second before threatened to devour him.

Cloud was panting. He pressed his palms to his eyes. His throat bobbed.

“Do you need me to leave the room?” Sephiroth said.

He was proud of how level he managed to keep the words.

Cloud shook his head mutely. They stayed like this for a long moment. The jingle of some asinine advertisement on the screen seemed to slowly help Cloud unwind.

“Sorry,” he finally said, his voice hoarse.

He was still hiding his face.

“Don’t apologize to me, Cloud.”

Cloud sighed. He let his hands drop. He looked defeated.

“That was… yeah. I’m really sorry, Sephiroth.”

“Do _not_ apologize,” Sephiroth repeated in a voice that brooked no argument. “Tell me what I did wrong.”

He regretted his tone immediately. Now was hardly the best time to be giving orders to Cloud. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have any adverse effect. Cloud only stared at him, nonplussed.

“Hmm,” he said, gulping again. “Maybe… maybe don’t back me into a corner again.”

His voice dissolved into a whisper at the end, as if ashamed. But Sephiroth nodded, calculating, slotting that fact into place.

He couldn’t fight ghosts. He couldn’t apply his intellect to solving a problem without recognizable parameters. He needed instructions, boundaries he could work with. If Cloud couldn’t take being in a position of vulnerability, then maybe…

He turned his back on Cloud, slung his legs over the armrest and lay down on the couch cushions. His head came to rest in Cloud’s reach. Wordlessly, he offered the remote. After a moment of hesitation, Cloud took it. Sephiroth closed his eyes, lowering his guard completely.

The sound of the TV changed as channels were tried and discarded. It settled on the 24/7 news. As the anchorman announced the weather, fingers slipped shyly through Sephiroth’s hair. He smiled.

* * *

“Oh, I hate the Northern Continent,” Kyle grumbled, shivering in his coat.

Marian elbowed her colleague and snapped to attention as the general turned to them.

He was in his battle leathers today. It was good to see him on the field. Not that seeing him wearing the same uniform as everyone else around HQ wasn’t welcome, but this hit differently. It’s looking like this that the man had toppled Shinra. It was weirdly reassuring. Things you could always count on: ice cream, cute puppies and General Sephiroth kicking ass while bare-chested in sub-zero temperatures.

And looking very hot while he was at it.

“You go east,” the general told their squad. “Keep an eye out and stay on radio.”

“Yes sir!”

Marian and her squadmates saluted and turned to go. The wind got even more biting once they left the relative shelter of Icicle Inn’s walls. Kyle groaned in despair.

“Shut up,” Marian hissed. “The general will hear you!”

“Who cares,” said Stefan. “Come on, the one good thing about the WRO is that no one is going to fire us for breathing too hard or, you know, having a personality.”

“Fuck Heidegger, huh?” Nick, the only ex-SOLDIER in the squad, said in sympathy. “Director Lazard was an okay guy.”

Marian personally thought that there were a lot more good things about the WRO than an increased freedom of speech. For starters, the WRO wasn’t full of misogynistic assholes. She had already climbed more ranks and gotten more pay rises in eight months of working for Reeve Tuesti than in years in Shinra. When you were a woman, even keeping your job as a trooper in Shinra took some serious skills.

To think she had wanted to be the first woman in SOLDIER. Kids could be so naive.

“No reason to be disrespectful,” she insisted.

“I’m being disrespectful to the fucking weather,” Kyle said. “I wouldn’t whine to the general’s _face_.”

“Chill out, Marian,” Stefan said. “We aren’t going to kill your non-existent chances with General Sephiroth.”

She glared at him.

“Very funny.”

Sure, she had a crush on Sephiroth. So what? She didn’t know a single woman in the organization who didn’t. And the men were hardly better.

Sephiroth was gorgeous and a war hero. Out of the four great commanders from the war, Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley had retired together, and word on the grapevine was General Fair had just proposed to his girlfriend. Sephiroth was literally the most sought-after bachelor on the Planet.

Not that her crush didn’t predate the war. She used to daydream about becoming a SOLDIER First Class and wooing Sephiroth with her fighting skills. Man, teenage her was a riot.

Their squad leaned against the wind as they took the long way around to the target of their operation. Multiple squads were meant to take multiple paths toward the site, so they could surround the enemies and make sure none tried to escape. They also had to keep an eye out for enemy scouts that could sound the alarm.

About an hour in, they were ambushed by monsters. They couldn’t use guns because the sound would carry over the snow. Marian swung her sword at a bandersnatch and wished, not for the first time, that she was enhanced.

Kyle fell over with a shout. Marian sent a fire spell his way to buy him some time. Her opponent took advantage of her distraction and closed his maws over her wrist.

“Ow!”

Her sword fell to the ground. She kicked at the wolf-like creature so it would let go. She backed away.

She eyed her weapon; the monster eyed her.

Just before she could try and see which one of them would be faster, metal flashed before her sight. The bandersnatch fell over, neatly cut in two.

The rest of the pack turned to meet the new threat and quickly met similar fates. Blood burst through the air. Where it fell in great arcs on the ground, the snow melted and turned into pink sludge.

A blond man came to a stop in the middle of the stupefied squad. He frowned at them.

“Could you guys be any noisier?”

Marian recovered and quickly raised her retrieved blade.

“Decline your identity!” she ordered.

Stefan let out a strange whining noise. She glanced at him, but he didn’t look injured.

The unknown man sighed. Without answering, he ran his two swords through the snow to clean them.

“Hey!” Marian yelled.

Nick joined her and forced her to lower her weapon.

“I don’t know who that guy is, but he’s more enhanced than me,” he whispered to her from the side of his mouth. “Don’t piss him off.”

“I’m your informant,” the stranger finally said.

“Informant?” Marian repeated.

“I’m the guy who called the situation in. You _are_ here for the AVALANCHE base, right?”

They definitely shouldn’t have said anything about their mission without confirmation of his identity, but Stefan cut Marian off:

“Yep! Yes. Yes sir. That’s us.”

She widened her eyes at him in outrage, but he ignored her.

“About time,” the man said, drying his swords on his pants and sheathing them. “Couldn’t you have used some Enemy Away Materia? They’ll have heard you coming.”

“Uh,” said Nick, the only one of them who could be considered a Materia expert. “Those are, like, pretty rare.”

The stranger grunted in dismay. What did he expect? It was already novel for regular soldiers to have access to Materia, even basic ones. It’s not like Shinra had offered them to the WRO free of charge, too. Their entire budget couldn’t go in Materia.

“Whatever. Hurry up.”

He led the way without waiting for an answer. Marian fumed. Who the hell did that guy think he was?

“What were you thinking?” she hissed under her breath at Stefan. “What if he’s one of AVALANCHE’s enhanced Ravens?”

“Nooo, come on, Marian,” he whispered back, weirdly starry-eyed, “it’s _the Fifth General_.”

“You’re kidding me,” Kyle said.

“I am not!”

“Umm,” Nick said, pensive. “Looks like Sergeant Strife, but bulkier; that’s what all the stories say. I guess it fits.”

“Yeah, stories,” Marian stressed. “Come on, the Fifth General is just an army fairytale!”

“I’m with her,” Kyle said.

“Shut up, greenhorn. You weren’t in the war,” Stefan argued. “Unlike _you_ , Marian. I can’t believe you don’t believe in the Fifth!”

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, she had been in the war, and she had never even seen the guy. In her mind, that was enough to leak serious water in that far-fetched tale of a Deepground renegade turned war hero. But before she could answer that, Marian’s radio crackled.

“We’ve got movement around the target,” said General Sephiroth. “All units, report. Over.”

Their stranger perked up from where he was waiting for them, arms crossed, at the top of a hill. Marian eyed him warily. Once the other squads had sounded in, she said:

“East Squad reporting in. We’re near target, but have met with an unknown quantity claiming to be our source. Blond man, enhanced, with two swords. Requesting confirmation. Over.”

Gunfire sounded close by. They swiveled that way. The radio crackled again.

“Confirmed,” Sephiroth said, terse. “Cloud, get over here.”

He barked other instructions to the squads, but the blond man was already gone. Swearing, Marian took off after him.

The WRO troops attacked the compound from all directions. They invaded it, fighting hard for each room conquered. There weren’t that many defense forces, but all of them were Ravens. The blond man quickly disappeared ahead of them. It frustrated Marian. Fifth or no Fifth, he was enhanced and their squad could have used his help.

They finally caught up to him in what looked like a control room. Marian’s sarcastic _‘thanks for nothing’_ died on her lips. The floor of the dim room was carpeted in Ravens’ corpses. Arms akimbo, the man was frowning at a control panel.

He glanced over when Stefan saluted him with a sharp “sir!” He looked bemused. Definitely not a general, come on.

His attention turned away from them and toward another corridor. Two faint green lights approached in the darkness, soon morphing into General Sephiroth’s Mako eyes. Another squad followed behind him.

“Cloud. Didn’t I request that you rendezvous with me?”

Despite the words, his lips were quirked up. It didn’t sound like a reprimand. The man named Cloud blatantly turned his back on him, making Marian gape in outrage.

“Hmm,” he said. “Does this look like a self-destruct sequence to you?”

Sephiroth joined him at the panel that held his attention. He stepped close enough to him that a muscle jumped on Cloud’s bare arms. Cloud made as if to take a reflexive step back, which was a weird moment to start being respectful, but okay.

But then.

Then.

Then General Sephiroth set a hand at the small of his back. Cloud stopped. After a tense moment, his body language relaxed.

The two squads exchanged wide-eyed looks. Even Stefan started blushing.

Even if that guy was the rumored Fifth General, you didn’t generally greet your ex-second-in-command with such intimate contact.

By silent agreement, they glanced away and stayed quiet as mice. No one wanted to be the person who’d remind General Sephiroth that he had an audience.

“Ah, yes,” Sephiroth said.

He did something on the control panel while Cloud watched.

“There. It’s disarmed.”

Sephiroth straightened and faced Cloud. He was smiling.

“My thanks.”

Cloud shrugged. He crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the panel.

“Wouldn’t want the whole base to blow up with you. It’d be kind of a waste.”

“The base or me?”

“Yeah.”

Sephiroth.

Fucking.

Grinned.

Marian nearly swallowed her tongue. Oh, Mama. She should have looked away.

Not that it would have helped to make them invisible, because Sephiroth glanced at the squads without a hint of surprise or self-consciousness.

“Gather the injured in this room,” he told them. “Line up the dead outside the west entrance. Report any surviving Raven to me. Then search the compound for weapons or anything that looks immediately dangerous.”

Marian saluted with everyone else. Then she hesitated. She was technically injured… It was just her arm and she would have kept working usually. But…

Stefan made the decision for her. He tugged her down and proceeded to remake her hastily applied bandage. It wasn’t urgent, but she didn’t resist. Nick gave them a disappointed look, seeing them for the unrepentant eavesdroppers that they were, before pushing a reluctant Kyle out.

“No trace of Fuhito?” Cloud was saying.

“No,” Sephiroth answered. “But you were right to not want to wait any longer. Most of the Ravens I saw coming in match the profiles we have for civilian disappearances on the Northern Continent.”

“Right,” Cloud sighed. He shook his head. “What the hell is Elfe doing?”

“Elfe hasn’t been sighted in a while. She might be out of the equation entirely.”

“Great.”

Sephiroth set a hand on Cloud’s shoulder. His thumb brushed against the column of his throat. They were standing so close Marian couldn’t help the color that rose on her cheeks.

“We’ll stop them,” Sephiroth said in a reassuring voice. “There has got to be exploitable intel in this base. The self-destruct mechanism is pretty telling, if nothing else. It’s an excellent lead, Cloud.”

Cloud leaned into his grip for a moment. Then a group came in with two troopers on stretchers. Cloud startled and stepped away. He made a vague gesture over his shoulder.

“I, uh… will help search the compound.”

He hurried toward one of the exits. As he passed one of the injured men, he stopped. The poor guy was moaning in pain, his wound clearly the real deal. It made Marian feel guilty. She kicked Stefan so he would stop dawdling.

As if it was an afterthought, Cloud sent a high-level Cure spell at the guy. The man immediately fell silent and stared at his blood-covered midriff in confusion.

Sephiroth walked up to Cloud, one hand held out.

“Will you be coming back with us?” he asked, serene as a monk.

Cloud popped his Cure Materia out of his bracer and lobbed it at him.

“… I guess.”

Sephiroth smiled. Cloud stared at him for a little while. His back was to Marian, so she couldn’t see his face.

He hurried out. Sephiroth moved to heal the other soldier.

Marian knocked her head against the wall in quiet despair as Stefan finally stopped fiddling with her bandage. He sent her a supportive grimace, but she could see his glee at having unearthed the juiciest bit of gossip of the year.

Fuck.

There was out of her league, and then there was _out of her league_.

* * *

“Do you mind if I store some stuff here?”

Did he mind if Cloud left some of his equipment in his flat. Sephiroth scoffed internally. He turned a page without looking up.

“Just move in, Cloud.”

The sounds of sword maintenance stopped.

“… What?”

Sephiroth lowered his book. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Romulus on his lap and his maintenance kit open on the coffee table, Cloud stared at him in surprise.

“Move in,” Sephiroth stressed. “You have the spare keys to this place. You stay here every time you’re in town. There is no conceivable reason for you to keep lugging the total sum of your belongings everywhere you go.”

Sephiroth had never thought he would be the type of man to wish for the mundane security of seeing a toothbrush next to his on the bathroom sink. Yet every time Cloud left town and every trace of his presence in the flat disappeared with him, it dug at the fear that he might never come back.

Cloud’s eyes widened.

“But I don’t— I mean… we can’t even…”

He looked down, red-cheeked.

They had yet to sleep together, is what he meant.

Oh, they had had sex a couple of times. They were getting better at consistently reaching their climax without something breaking the mood, even. But actually sleeping next to each other was on another level entirely.

Unlike what Cloud had convinced himself of, however, his trauma wasn’t the sole problem. Certainly, the only time they had tried, Cloud had been the one to wake up from a violent nightmare and lash out in fear. But Sephiroth hadn’t been sleeping. Even back during the Wutai War, he had never shared a bed with someone else; it had taken forever before he had gotten used enough to Genesis and Angeal that he could share even a tent with them.

So they were both at fault, but Cloud had a tendency to sink too deep into his guilt to listen.

“As far as I am concerned, the second bedroom is yours,” Sephiroth said, unbothered.

It had been enough of a struggle to convince him to use it instead of fleeing to the nearest hotel every time they hit a snag in their relationship. Cloud would probably have moved in with his brother if Strife wasn’t living in the barracks.

Cloud stayed silent for a moment.

“That’s…” he sighed. “Sephiroth…”

He didn’t say anything else. He just looked at him, complex emotions swirling in his eyes.

Finally, he set his sword down and got to his feet. Sephiroth put his book aside when he approached, allowing Cloud to straddle his lap. He curled his hands around his lover’s hips. Hesitantly, Cloud leaned their foreheads together. Sephiroth closed his eyes, enjoying the casual intimacy and allowing him the upper hand.

“We should… try the sleeping thing again,” Cloud said quietly.

Sephiroth hummed.

“Ready whenever you are.”

He didn’t foresee it going any better on his end, but it never would if he couldn’t get accustomed to it.

Cloud sighed again.

“You’re… awfully patient with me, Sephiroth.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Kinda makes me think that I’m not pulling my weight in this relationship…”

Sephiroth snorted.

“I literally owe you my sanity, Cloud.”

Cloud opened his mouth to deny it.

He closed it.

It was hard for even his insecurities to pretend that he wasn’t the only thing that had made the difference between this present and the timeline he had once lived in.

“Okay,” he allowed. “Maybe.”

Sephiroth kissed him before he could try to add some half-baked caveat. Cloud yielded and allowed himself to be distracted for a little while.

“Still,” he whispered when they parted. “You know you could have just about anyone else in your bed, right? You’d be getting more out of any relationship than this one.”

“Like what?” Sephiroth scoffed.

“Actual sex, for one,” Cloud said drily. “The chance to stick your dick somewhere.”

There were so many things wrong with these words that Sephiroth had to pull back to give him an unamused look. Cloud looked defiant, daring him to defend what they had been doing as “actual sex”. Sephiroth was of the firm opinion that it qualified. Penetration was just about the only line they hadn’t crossed.

But Cloud wanted to hear it from him. Wanted to be able to use his reassurances to beat his inner demons to a pulp.

Sephiroth suspected it wouldn’t have much effect on the long term; the ghosts named anxiety and insecurity seemed nearly impossible to exorcise. If Cloud needed this from him, however, he would give it to him.

He just had to make another point first.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

Cloud blinked, thrown off script.

“What?”

“If we weren’t together, Cloud, I would just be single.”

“Well, right now, sure. But basically anyone you’d go for would—”

“The point, Cloud,” he interrupted, “is that I wouldn’t be going for anyone.”

Cloud frowned.

“How many romantic relationships do you believe I’ve had before this one?” Sephiroth asked.

“Um,” Cloud said, frowning harder. It didn’t look like he had given the subject much thought.

“The answer is none.”

“None,” Cloud repeated in disbelief. “You’re awfully good at this for ‘none’, Sephiroth.”

_‘Better than me,’_ went unsaid.

Sephiroth had to smirk. That was always nice to hear.

“Which parts?”

Cloud squinted at him, unwilling to flatter his ego.

“All of them,” he muttered grudgingly. “I was definitely not your first in bed.”

“You weren’t,” Sephiroth confirmed. “But you were the first one I wanted there.”

Cloud’s eyes widened. Sephiroth ducked his head to press a sweet kiss to his lips.

“I don’t get it,” Cloud said.

“I am a pretty thorough man. When I joined SOLDIER and every conversation around the locker room seemed to revolve around sex, I figured there was more to it than what I had been told in the labs. So I searched for a willing woman and I gave it a try.”

Cloud reeled back and goggled at him.

“It was rather underwhelming,” Sephiroth confessed. “But I figured the problem might be with me. So I repeated the experience with a partner of the male persuasion.”

“… And?”

“And it was just as boring.”

_‘Boring,’_ Cloud mouthed. This brought Sephiroth’s attention to his lips, so he kissed him again. This time, he lingered. His hand drifted up Cloud’s back. Cloud shifted on his lap. He was getting agitated.

“Sephiroth,” he said, short of breath, when he released him, “are you trying to tell me that…”

“You’re the only person I have ever wanted in my bed.”

Cloud stared. His pupils were visibly expanding.

“You’re the only person I have ever wanted in my life,” Sephiroth added.

And oh, yes. There went Cloud’s temperature rising, and the reason for his fidgeting started pressing against Sephiroth’s abdomen. Cloud was the one to kiss him this time. Sephiroth let himself be pushed against the back of the couch as the kiss grew deeper and more heated. His own desire was awakening in response to Cloud’s.

“You’re just saying that,” Cloud breathed, but the accusation was weak and he was already moving to press his lips and his tongue to Sephiroth’s throat.

“I hardly need to lie to get laid,” Sephiroth argued, a bolt of pleasure straining his voice for a moment. “You’ve been side-eyeing me all evening.”

Cloud huffed, the gust of air brushing against Sephiroth’s saliva-slick skin and giving him goosebumps. He didn’t deny it. He returned to kissing him.

Sephiroth cupped his hands around his buttocks and pulled him closer. Cloud groaned. He drew away, panting. There was a feverish glint in his eyes.

“Sephiroth, do you… would you…”

Cloud gulped.

“Would you be okay with…”

“I’ll try anything you want.”

Cloud’s eyes flitted around his face, looking for any trace of a lie. He slid a thumb along Sephiroth’s jawline.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to give you that much control over me,” he confessed in a whisper.

Sephiroth didn’t need a translation for that subtext.

His breath caught. His stomach flipped.

Could _he_ give up full control? He had never considered it with his previous lovers; never actually thought of it as a possibility, not even in idle thoughts over the years. Whenever he thought of sex, which was rarely, though less so since Cloud, this wasn’t what he envisioned. That’s how used he was to being in charge. The option gave him vertigo, like staring at a yawning pit whose bottom he couldn’t see.

But if it was Cloud.

If Cloud was there to catch him…

He smiled, and he knew it looked unsure. This, too, always felt like a leap of faith. Every vulnerability he let slip around Cloud felt like exposing his vital organs. Cloud had yet to give him a reason to regret it.

“I’ll try anything you want,” he repeated.

Cloud’s eyes caught fire. He kissed him hard.

“How are you so…” he groaned, and kissed him again rather than finishing.

Sephiroth didn’t sleep that night.

But in his arms, Cloud did.

* * *

Sephiroth had never set foot in Nibelheim before.

Well, he supposed that was incorrect. According to Cloud, he had been born here. He had probably spent the first few years of his life under the sinister Shinra Mansion. But the labs of his childhood all blurred together, and they were hardly comparable to an actual village.

For a place that had once loomed so large in his destiny, Nibelheim turned out to be rather unremarkable. It was just an isolated settlement like many others he had visited during his years of service for Shinra. It would never have appeared on any map if it hadn’t been for the Mako reactor that used to dwell in the mountains nearby, nowadays a half-collapsed husk thanks to Cloud’s zeal.

Speaking of half-collapsed husks, however… the charred remains of the mansion towering over the town were a more immediate eyesore.

The snow crunched as Cloud shifted his weight next to him. Sephiroth wrenched his eyes away from the ruins to smile at him.

“You don’t do anything by half, do you?”

Cloud didn’t answer. He looked uneasy.

It wasn’t unexpected. Cloud had been the one to decide on this trip, but he had been on edge the whole way here. Sephiroth didn’t take offense. He was already happy that Cloud had taken the initiative of lancing one of his many wounds.

Sephiroth had seen with his own eyes what had happened when his self from another future had entered this village. Yet Cloud had brought him here. Cloud wanted him here. This, too, was progress.

Sephiroth didn’t know what role the mansion had played in the insanity of that other Sephiroth, but him looking at it was making Cloud nervous. He turned from it and toward the open car door he had just exited. He took off his bangle and shoved it in the glovebox. The Materia winked one last time before he closed the compartment.

Cloud made an inarticulate sound. He was staring.

Sephiroth had purposefully not taken Masamune on this journey. His only weapons were a dagger in his boot and the Materia he had just put away. No Fire one, obviously.

He gestured at the car.

“You’ve got the keys.”

Cloud gazed at him for a while longer. Sephiroth prided himself on his composure, but they had known each other long enough that his tension must be obvious to Cloud.

He didn’t like going unarmed. He didn’t like feeling on his person the eyes of the villagers milling around and not knowing who among them could be a threat. He wasn’t even wearing his leathers. The only reason he managed to convince himself to shed one more layer of protection was that Cloud was equipped as usual, swords and Materia included.

He could entrust him with his protection for one day. He could.

Cloud closed and locked the car. Then he tugged Sephiroth down for a searing kiss. It nearly made him stumble — he hadn’t expected that Cloud would be willing to engage in public displays here of all places. Small villages like this one weren’t known for their acceptance.

“They’re staring,” he whispered when they parted.

He could hear the mutters in his back.

“Let them,” Cloud said. “I’m their favorite gossip subject. They’ve got no idea where I even came from.”

“It won’t mean trouble for your mother?”

Cloud grinned, a quick snapshot of humor that was gone as fast as it appeared. It was welcome all the same; he hadn’t smiled since their departure from Junon.

“She’s the one having the most fun from it all. You should hear the wild stories she makes up every time someone different asks her about me.”

“Well, now I do want to hear.”

Cloud didn’t smile. Maybe it was too early to joke about meeting the mother Cloud was so anxious to put in his presence. Yet he took his hand and towed him toward a small house.

It was more contact than Cloud was prone to, and his grip was tight. But despite that attempt to keep control of Sephiroth’s movements, Sephiroth couldn’t help but note that he had taken his right hand, leaving his dominant one free to defend himself. The small concession to Sephiroth’s tension was appreciated.

The door opened before they could knock. Strife appeared, grinning.

“Hey, you made it.”

Cloud let go to hug his brother.

“Don’t keep the door open, you’re letting the warmth out!” called a voice from inside.

“Yes, Mom,” both Strife boys said in the long-suffering tone of people who’d heard these words many times before.

They shuffled inside. Tifa and a middle-aged blonde woman were puttering around the kitchen table.

“Sir.” Strife saluted Sephiroth.

Sephiroth lifted a wry eyebrow.

“Hardly,” he said, and offered a hand instead.

Strife shook it with a grin. Sephiroth saw him occasionally around HQ, mostly near Zack. His second-in-command relied on Strife enough that they were going to have to promote him again very soon to stop grumbling in the ranks. He had put on some muscle and his features had matured. A year from now, people would probably start mistaking him and Cloud for twins.

“Oh my.”

Sephiroth faced Claudia Strife as she approached him. He did his best not to let his nerves show. His experience with mothers was non-existent. The fact that meeting the parents of your lover was generally considered a significant step in a relationship would have been high stakes enough, but Cloud’s ghosts turned this into even more of a minefield. He had felt less besieged during the Wutai War.

If Claudia felt the sudden charge in the air, she didn’t let it show. Her blue eyes raked him up and down.

“Look how tall you are! Were you that tall on TV?”

She put a hand to the top of her head and leveled it to his chest.

“Mom,” Cloud groaned.

“I’m just saying. Look at him. He practically has to bend his head to come into this poor house.” Sephiroth glanced at the ceiling, which was hardly that close. “We wouldn’t be having this problem if you had settled for a nice girl like your brother.”

Sephiroth fought the urge to fidget. Cloud had assured him that she wouldn’t mind one of her sons turning up with a boyfriend. He glanced at Cloud to gauge his reaction, but he only looked disgruntled.

“Please,” he grumbled. “Even women get taller than me and Cloud.”

Tifa laughed. Strife snapped the dish towel he was holding at his brother’s shoulder, but didn’t deny it.

“That’s what you boys get for taking all of my genes and none of your father’s,” Claudia replied easily. Then, to Sephiroth: “Oh, but do come inside! Don’t mind this old lady. I’m only teasing Rain. That’s my duty as his mother, really. He can’t expect to tell me in the same breath that he’s dating a celebrity and that he’s bringing him home for dinner without some repercussions.”

She hooked her elbow in Sephiroth’s and tugged him toward the table, wagging a playful finger at Cloud. Taken aback by the casual contact, Sephiroth let himself be moved. Cloud was watching them like a hawk, but he played up the grumpiness to hide it. He clearly didn’t want to worry his mother. To her, this was a simple family dinner.

“He hadn’t mentioned that we were seeing each other?” Sephiroth said with a benign smile.

“Of course not! When does this boy ever talk about himself?”

Sephiroth made a sound of agreement that seemed to endear him to her. She pushed him into a chair and everyone else gathered around the table laden with food. Cloud sat at his left elbow.

“And his brother is hardly better,” Claudia continued. “All I got from him were coy little hints. ‘Oh, I don’t think Rain is looking for someone right now, really.’”

“Mom,” Strife whined.

“Don’t blame him too much,” Tifa teased as she started filling her plate. “He’s been bursting at the seams the whole time with the urge to brag that he’s our commander’s future brother-in-law. It’s killing him not to confirm the rumors floating around HQ.”

Strife turned bright red. Cloud looked at him with raised eyebrows. Sephiroth didn’t let out how startled he was by the evocation of marriage. Considering how fragile this thing between Cloud and him still was, this was one subject he had never considered.

“Well,” Claudia said, patting Sephiroth’s arm in comfort and offering him the bowl of mashed potatoes. “It’s great to meet you, Sephiroth. Thank you for taking care of that one. He’s even more of a handful than his brother.”

“Of this I have no doubt.”

“Are we going to spend the entire meal taking potshots at me?” Cloud drawled.

“I vote yes,” Tifa said.

Whether by mercy or contrariness, Claudia told Sephiroth:

“You have lovely hair.”

“Thank you,” he said, surprised. “You have a lovely son.”

It was worth it for the way Cloud’s eyes widened and color rose on his cheeks, every trace of his wariness falling off his shoulders like a slippery cloak. Claudia threw her head back and laughed.

* * *

Sephiroth emerged from sleep as he usually did: all at once. He exhaled, unwilling to open his eyes. He was comfortable and tired. That he was able to sleep at all now was a victory, but he was still in that awkward stage where his body mostly caved out of exhaustion and woke him up a few hours later as if it was having second thoughts.

He tightened his arm around the warm waist next to him.

“Sorry,” Cloud whispered. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

His fingers carded gently through Sephiroth’s hair. Sephiroth slit his eyes open. The gray gloom of predawn slipped around the curtains, leaving the contours of the room in hazy half-seen forms. Cloud was looking at him with the same pensive stare that had startled Sephiroth’s leery hindbrain out of sleep.

“Did you mean to go?” Sephiroth murmured.

Cloud had been here about a week. He spent longer and longer in Junon, but there wasn’t much for him to do in town, so he inevitably got antsy. One day, he would figure out what to do with his life now that the urge to run faded from his veins more and more; Sephiroth had faith. But that day had not yet come, and he was due for a new trip soon.

However, Cloud shook his head.

Sephiroth smiled.

“Good,” he said, and shifted, burying under the blankets to curl around Cloud’s chest.

He didn’t use to indulge like this. When he was awake, he was awake, and in the past, there had been no reason to delay the inevitable start of the day. He was a morning person anyway. But he so rarely got these quiet moments with Cloud; he liked to take advantage when he could.

Cloud smoothed a hand over his shoulder, calluses rasping sweetly against his skin.

“Sephiroth.”

“Hmm?”

The silence lasted long enough that Sephiroth lifted his head. He searched Cloud’s features.

“What’s wrong? Are you worrying about the ceremony?”

The invitation for Zack and Aerith’s wedding had come the previous evening. Zack had distributed them to their gathered friends with the smile of someone living the best days of his life. Cloud had glowed in incandescent pleasure and warmly congratulated them. Zack and Aerith’s relationship had for him an importance that Sephiroth failed to fathom.

But he had been quiet afterward. Sephiroth had wondered if it was because he had noticed that the invitation was addressed to the both of them, their names joint on the envelope. Cloud had been known to react strangely to more insignificant things.

Cloud grimaced.

“I’ve never been to a wedding before.”

“Neither have I,” Sephiroth confessed.

He had a feeling he was supposed to wear his dress uniform. It was nearly enough to make him reconsider attending. But even if he was ready to disappoint Zack, he wouldn’t miss the chance of seeing Angeal’s long-suffering face when Genesis inevitably showed up in something flamboyant.

He cupped Cloud’s cheek in his hand and brushed his thumb against his cheekbone.

“You’ll go anyway,” he said, sure of that if he was sure of anything.

“Of course,” Cloud said instantly. He closed his eyes. “But there are going to be cameras.”

Ah. And here came Cloud’s adamant refusal to be in the public’s eye.

The ceremony was meant to be small and modest, as was befitting for both bride and groom, but Zack was a high-profile man. There was bound to be eyes on them.

“You can be my arm candy,” Sephiroth said, smiling.

“Very funny,” Cloud deadpanned. “As if that’s not going to make even more tongues wag than the whole Fifth General mess.”

Still, he didn’t deny that they would be going together. It was nice to have confirmation. All in all, while he was unhappy about the situation, he didn’t seem ready to run for the hills. Sephiroth slid up the bed and kissed him in reward.

Cloud nudged their noses together.

“That’s not what I wanted to talk about,” he whispered.

Sephiroth drew back to meet his eyes, but Cloud didn’t continue. He was staring again, gaze flitting over Sephiroth’s eyes, cheeks, lips, brow. Sephiroth cupped the back of his head.

“Go on.”

Cloud let out a silent sigh.

“No nightmares last night. I slept the whole night through.”

“Lucky you,” Sephiroth said drily, earning a twitch of the lips.

He didn’t understand where this conversation was going. To his knowledge, Cloud’s nightmares had been fairly rare recently. Even if he had tried to hide them, Sephiroth would have woken at the slightest sign of trouble in the room.

Cloud took a deep breath, obviously bracing himself. Sephiroth started to worry.

“I want to try something.”

“Alright?”

Cloud’s fingers closed around his pillow. His knuckles were white.

“I want to try the mind link again.”

Sephiroth’s breath left him in a woosh. He felt like he had gotten punched in the stomach. He retrieved his hand to hide how much it shook. Cloud caught it, wide-eyed with alarm.

“Sephiroth?”

Sephiroth closed his eyes. It did nothing to banish the taste of fear on the back of his tongue, metallic and thick like blood, or the memory of the yawning chasm of cold void that his soul had once brushed against. Sephiroth was familiar with death, had inflicted it plenty of times himself, but it had never felt so terribly intimate before that day.

“I don’t know that I can…” he said, and had to stop when his voice shook embarrassingly despite his best efforts.

“Sephiroth?”

“You were still wide open, Cloud.”

There was a silence. Cloud swore softly, but heavily. He drew Sephiroth closer.

“I’m sorry. Sephiroth, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”

Sephiroth hid his white face against his shoulder and clung to his lover. Here in his arms, Cloud was warm and alive. This was all that mattered, all that he should be focusing on.

“I’m an idiot,” Cloud said bitterly. “I focus so much on my issues I never notice yours until I step all over them.”

Sephiroth didn’t answer. He felt too unmoored to address Cloud’s self-flagellation. The thought that this guilt might push Cloud out of the door now, of all times, was enough to wrench something inside of him. He tightened his arms around Cloud, probably past the point of pain. Cloud let out a shocked breath, but didn’t protest. Whether or not he got the message, he didn’t say anything else.

With time, Sephiroth’s breathing got easier. He eased up on his grip.

“I’m surprised,” he confessed.

“What?”

“I thought you of all people would never mention the mind link again.”

And since Sephiroth had been perfectly ready to forget its existence, he had figured it would go unaddressed for the rest of their lives. He hadn’t been braced for its evocation, hence why it had struck him so hard.

Cloud played with his hair. Sephiroth looked up. Cloud seemed uncertain.

“Nothing,” he said finally. “It was nothing. Forget I said anything.”

Sephiroth gave him a humorless look.

“Don’t do that. Talk to me, Cloud.”

Cloud gave a frustrated sigh.

“See, this is why… I’m crap at communication.”

He cut himself off like he had said more than he meant to. Sephiroth tilted his head.

“You… meant to use the link to convey meaning?”

It was certainly an intriguing idea, but not one he had ever expected Cloud to entertain. Should he be relieved that the bond no longer terrified Cloud, or worried that he felt the need to go so far? Certainly, they had their misunderstandings, but with enough patience they got resolved. It seemed like overkill.

Cloud’s chest rose with a deep sigh. His eyes wandered to the ceiling.

“I just… don’t think… it’s very fair.”

“What isn’t?”

Cloud chewed on his tongue for a moment.

“I got to feel how much you cared for me. You should get the same.”

Sephiroth stared. Words utterly escaped him. Something huge bubbled up inside him, threatening to choke him. Cloud’s cheeks reddened under his gaze.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered.

Sephiroth kissed him. Cloud pressed against him in relief. Their embrace started getting heated. Sephiroth slowed them down, nipping at Cloud’s lips and finally drawing back.

“Alright.”

It was Cloud’s turn to stare.

“But you… you were…”

Sephiroth leaned their foreheads together.

“If there is anything that could banish from my nightmares the memory of your mind fading into death, it would be getting to feel it alive again.”

Cloud exhaled shakily.

“Well… now that you’ve said that, we have to do it.”

“No backing down,” Sephiroth agreed, smirking.

The thought still made him quiver inside, but he had never yielded to fear. Besides, Cloud fought every day to bring his recovery even just a little further. There was some balance in the idea that this particular step would cost just as much from Sephiroth.

Cloud wasn’t fooled by his bravado. He held his eyes and cupped Sephiroth’s face between his hands. Sephiroth centered himself around the rhythm of Cloud’s breaths, around the unhurried heartbeat he could just make out at his neck. He let himself be lulled as close to serenity as he could reach.

Cloud’s stare went unfocused. Sephiroth waited for that contact at the back of his psyche. Cloud closed his eyes, frowning.

“It’s… harder than before,” he said.

Had Cloud’s death weakened the link? He had been brought back by the Planet, who didn’t have much love for the J cells. Or maybe that was actually it. Maybe the J cells were weaker now because Jenova was dead.

There was a strange echoing sensation as that thought reached another mind and found agreement there. Sephiroth drew a startled breath as foreign emotions washed over him. Cloud hugged him tighter.

The fear he remembered so well from last time was still there, but it was muted now; inescapable, but an afterthought. Its roiling black clouds had receded far away on the horizon, always threatening rain, but not delivering, not today. Worry and determination had replaced it, Cloud’s courage shining gold on his mindscape like a generous sun.

And under that sun, oh!

Sephiroth gasped, unable to hold it in.

Under that sun grew tendrils of green. Innumerable seeds once lying under the muddy soil had cracked open their shells and were now reaching for the sky, and every one of them was love. Love for him.

“Cloud,” he choked out, and realized his cheeks were drenched with tears.

Cloud brushed at them, futilely trying to stem the flow even as his mind drew him closer, protective, angry on his behalf; angry but unsurprised that Sephiroth needed this so much, that he had gone for so long without, when he deserved this love and far more.

Sephiroth was lost for words, but Cloud shuddered. He knew then that the link carried every last wave of gratitude and love he felt in return.

Cloud groaned, breathless, and sought his lips. Sephiroth gladly offered them, and everything that he was besides.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr post](https://yourdragonisinanothercastle.tumblr.com/post/631768682486480896/congrats-on-200-followers-i-would-be-absolutely)


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